The debate about how we honour historic figures – or indeed which ones we should honour – misses an essential point. The real issue isn’t that we name a building after Sir Hector-Louis Langevin or erect a statue on Parliament Hill in honour of the Famous Five women. Of course we should honour our heroes, but the problem is that in doing so, we sanitize their history to hide uncomfortable truths about them.

People often take offence because we accord historic figures iconic status without acknowledging they are flawed and may have done things that have harmed others. This is not about measuring past heroes by today’s standards. It is about holding them to their record.

History shows that great achievers are often flawed figures. Winston Churchill, for instance, was an unparalleled wartime leader but he also held racist and other unsavoury views. “I do not admit that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the black people of Australia … by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race … has come in and taken its place,” he said in 1937, ignoring the slaughter of millions. The man who became such a bane to Adolf Hitler once supported the use of poisonous gas, criticizing “squeamishness” about its use. “I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes,” Churchill famously said in 1919.

Thomas Jefferson is a towering figure in American politics. But he was also a slave owner and racist who railed against interracial relationships. “The amalgamation of whites with blacks produces a degradation to which no lover of this country, no lover of excellence in human character can innocently consent,” he said even as he fathered children with his black slave.

The beloved Mahatma Gandhi had a bizarre habit of sleeping naked with young naked women to perfect his celibacy.

We celebrate these giants for the mark they left on society but their flaws are part of their legacy, and we shouldn’t whitewash them.

And so it is with our own historic figures. Just because Langevin was a Father of Confederation doesn’t mean his record as an architect of the residential school system, which ruined thousands of lives, should be hidden in our telling of the history of our country. At least 6,000 residential school students died and countless more suffered horrific abuse that scarred them for life. If we are going to name a public building after Langevin, we cannot bury this part of his record. A plaque on the Langevin building should explain the harm he caused aboriginal people.

The same goes for the Famous Five, and indeed the many other heroes we choose to honour. There’s no doubt Nellie McClung, Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney, Henrietta Muir Edwards and Irene Parlby were heroic women’s rights advocates worthy of celebration. The Persons Case they pursued all the way to victory in the British Privy Council was a seminal moment in the fight for women’s rights. But there was a dark side to them that we shouldn’t ignore. The women were leading advocates of eugenics and used their power and influence to push for legislation that led to the sterilization of nearly 3,000 Canadians (Albertans) deemed unfit to have children. Many of the victims were poor, disabled, mentally ill and aboriginal. The fact that the Famous Five were giants of women’s rights should not excuse their support for eugenics and the harm it did to innocent people. This part of their life-story must not be hidden.

But this is not just about Langevin or the Famous Five. It is about all the great achievers we’ve honoured but whose stories are only partially told. These people are often complex and we can’t pick and choose which of their stories we tell. History becomes propaganda if it doesn’t capture their full measure. If we are going to carve the names of our historic figures on public buildings and statues, we should tell their complete stories – the good and the bad.

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